SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — Folger Technology Kits

Re: Folger Technology Kits

2017-03-12T23:37:51Z

I have been a happy user of the FT I3 for over a year . Just ordered big brother the FT5.

Re: Folger Technology Kits

2016-12-04T21:29:15Z

3D printing lesson #372 brown squirrels and gray squirrels need different print settings.
Well not exactly. It is more like new formula Inland PLA vs old. A few weeks ago I purchased a roll of Lt brown Inland PLA listed as a new improved formula and the listed temps are a bit High for pla. IIRC 210 -225. that roll of filament has been on the printer since I purchased it and I have ran a bunch of successful prints. Included in the prints were a couple of red/ brown squirrels . But In my part of this fine land the squirrels are gray not red. So not really location appropriate. So I change out the filament and try to print. two Problems the first layers were sloppy and I failed to use the same filament path so snag and fail. So after printing several half squirrels I had to step back and remember the basics , reroute the filament slow down the first layer lower the temp and move forward.
It is reminder that every roll of filament may be different and in the endeavor to constantly improve materials settings have to change .And a reminder we need to remember the basics. Make assumptions and prints fail.
G-code is more or less disposable code. I can be reused but on a limited basis. And remember to use the preview tool it can save time and material.
It is IMHO a good idea to inversely scale the infill. a low honeycomb infill on a small object looks weird and does not fill much.
So here i sit reminding myself of lessons learned . I hope these ramblings will help others learn from my mistakes and blunders.
Tin

Re: Folger Technology Kits

2016-11-29T16:25:31Z

JohnR wrote:

Hello!
I'm a student trying to innovate within the growing 3-D printing industry and I was wondering if anybody could fill out this quick survey to help me gather some data. Any responses are helpful, Thanks!
https://docs.google.com/a/d155.org/form … u8x_I/edit

You've already posted this, Please don't double post the same thing in different sections.

Re: Folger Technology Kits

2016-11-29T16:23:25Z

Hello!
I'm a student trying to innovate within the growing 3-D printing industry and I was wondering if anybody could fill out this quick survey to help me gather some data. Any responses are helpful, Thanks!
https://docs.google.com/a/d155.org/form … u8x_I/edit

Re: Folger Technology Kits

2016-11-05T21:25:51Z

I am still using this printer and atm as my main printer. I have however noticed there is a considerable about of play . No surprise in this inverted "T" frame design. So some bracing today a simple l bracket fabricated to attach to powrer supply to the base frame as it is already attached to the vertical .
And on the other side bend a piece of aluminum and drill a couple holes for an angle bracket.
When I had this at the show last month we were adjusting height almost every print I thought this was just the filament hanging up. But after printing the horse last weekend I felt like the layers were a little off. then I noticed how much play there was in the frame . So today tightened the frame screws as well as electrical connections as well as some new bracing. So now running a print.

Re: Folger Technology Kits

2016-07-04T18:06:38Z

Tin - there are far better Z axis endstop mounts on thingiverse - some even have the adjustment screw integrated for quick, easy tweaks

I guess I should have looked for that. LOL but did have a couple spares on hand.

The extruder worked OK on mine but I did upgrade to the titan and ED3. the tian evan can be a bit finicky either the filamen pos in the guide or it takes ten tries. And one still needs to keep the fingers out of the fan blades .
I did print a fan duct that combines a hotend fan and nozzle fan.

Re: Folger Technology Kits

2016-07-04T17:35:48Z

Tin - there are far better Z axis endstop mounts on thingiverse - some even have the adjustment screw integrated for quick, easy tweaks

the biggest issue I have is their use of the MK8/9 extruders - I absolutely despise that extruder setup. Having the motor heatsink & fan in front of the filament drive gear is just a terrible design to me - can't see what is going on without having to take the stupid thing apart. And to take it apart means shutting it all down so you don't destroy the fan by sticking a screwdriver in the blades

The FT-5 comes with a MK9 type. I finally have it all wired up and trying to test... everything moves, bed and hotend heat up fine, but it wont feed the filament... reason why it wont feed? there is an alignment problem between extruder body and the mounting block for the hotend - by several millimeters!

I am currently printing up the version I used on the Prusa that I hope will solve this problem (allows a little more freedom of movement for the filament)

Re: Folger Technology Kits

2016-07-04T01:38:50Z

I am using the I3 it seems like one of the weak points is the end stop holders . and it is pain to reinstall and adjust the z axis end stop. but life goes on. time to print another set of spares.

Tin

Re: Folger Technology Kits

2016-04-25T04:01:22Z

I bought some linear rods from them and had a pretty bad experience. Both rods I bought were visibly bent, as in there is no way you could not have noticed it as it was being packaged. I tried to contact them, and their phone number states that all support must be through their webpage support form. I use the form, tell them that they sent me rods that were bent to hell, and asked if they had any kind of tolerance/specifications. Several days go by, and I give up, and just cut the rods into smaller less bent pieces for a mini project. The did eventually get back to me, saying that they don't have specs but will try and get them, and asking me to send pictures of the rods so that their claims department can figure out if they can be replaced. They also apologized for letting my ticket get "lost in their inbox".

In the end it was only like $30, and I did end up finding a use for them, but the whole thing left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. The rods were so bent that I noticed it immediately upon taking them out of the box, and there's just no way whoever packed them couldn't have noticed unless they did it without looking at all. The outside of the package was spotless. so I doubt it happened during shipping. The whole picture thing kind of threw me for a loop, maybe it was a combination of me already being pissed off at them in general and the fact that they took so long to respond that I just cut the rods up and couldn't show them how messed up they had been. It just kind of bothered me because it seems arbitrary to decide the acceptability of the rods based off of a picture. I mean, you could 100% have seen the bend in a crappy cellphone picture, but you can have a not so noticeable bend that might not be immediately apparent, but would still cause bearings to bind up. A picture might not show you that, and it seemed to have been implied that if they could not see the bend they would not accept a return. And what if the rods had been out of round, or under/oversize? What would a picture have done any good then? I did end up getting my money's worth, but I don't think I would buy any components or kits from them in the future.

Re: Folger Technology Kits

2016-04-24T17:05:04Z

Well another Month plus has gone by.
I will say the Folger 2020 Prusa I3 does indeed work as a 3d printer. As mentioned in previous posts my intention was to mount a ED3 hot end but the initial build used the stock hot end.
So with the availability of the Titan extruder I purchased one. I got the titan mounted but have been busy . I finally assembled the ED3v6 and got things reconfigured and tuned. at east some . probably more to do.
but once again the machine is printing.

FYI I ended up with a setting of 441.5 steps for the E and had to turn the Invert E0 logic to false.

And here is a poor photo to prove I did indeed build this machine and upgrade it.

Tin

Re: Folger Technology Kits

2016-03-15T11:33:25Z

maybe a read through this string will offer you some assistance with sorting out the rearranged pivot thing...

Re: Folger Technology Kits

2016-03-15T03:08:10Z

i haven't had a chance to give it a full run yet - I still need to tweak for where my Y endstop is set (mine is in front, not the rear), and I need to adjust the Z height - I added Z motor standoffs for a little more height - but once I do that I plan to give it a full run and see how it does on mine.

Re: Folger Technology Kits

2016-03-14T22:52:49Z

thank I will likely try it for now I just downloaded it and browsed through in arduino.

Re: Folger Technology Kits

2016-03-14T13:36:55Z

Ok Tin, i gave this one a quick try, and with the endstops in the stock locations, X motor wire flipped at the board and X endstop plugged into the MAX spot on the board this firmware does seem to work pretty well. (also set X as Max in RH)

You may still need to adjust your steps/mm for the extruder, and depending on your exact configuration, the Z height may need to be adjusted - it is set to 150mm but everyone seems to get a slightly different number... mine was around 160 in stock form...

This is also set up for LCD support (which I don't have, so cant comment on)

I asked and have permission to share it here - it is still being tweaked, but he would like a few testers to make sure things are working as they should...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8tws5zmppzgwa … D.zip?dl=0

If you do try it out, please share your feedback, thoughts, comments, suggestions so they can be passed on. He is working with FolgerTech to make this the standard firmware to be used on their kits.

Re: Folger Technology Kits

2016-03-14T01:22:47Z

I took the more or less easy route out moved the x home switch to the left "0" side of the bed and flipped the x home logic switch from true to false. the print preview is working again cleaned up the wiring some. and ran a couple prints. not the cleanest smoothest prints I have ever seen but the first prints off the SD4 were not stellar either. My current concern is the lcd control screen flickers off about every 8-10 seconds. Guess I should look at the temp curve this may be the heat bed cycle time the head bed is probably drawing 90 watts based on the ohm readings I took and the extruder heater is rated at 40 I did not take ohm readings on that.

It took me two weeks to get this thing up and running not sure how many hours,
I did not use the upgrade parts I have. the aluminum carriages are too short I would have to make spacers and I need a different mound feed mechanism to use the ED# i probably will get and uminum feed head made for the printbots.
Tin